"It has come to our attention that, following recent Samsung
events, there was dissatisfaction by the use of the selected
promotional/entertainment ladies to unveil and demonstrate the
new line up of product/s. Samsung South Africa are committed to
embracing a variety of consumers across our very diverse local
market and in no way intended to isolate or offend any one of
these audiences through these events.

As a result, we would like to apologise for any offence caused in
this regard and assure you that we acknowledge your views and
opinions on the matter. To this end, we will endeavour to be more
sensitive around these issues going forward and will raise all
relevant matters with our Head Quarters and respective regional
head offices accordingly. Furthermore, Samsung would like to
assure all media and consumers that we in no way intend to favour
any particular type of consumer, where each consumer and target
audience represents a viable portion of our business and as a
result, we will continue to embrace all consumer needs and
requirements within the market."

Photos of the event come from Axel Bührmann, managing editor at
Livdigital
Independent, a South African news site.

Bührmann pointed out that Samsung's event the year before was
also unusual, but it had "women/men/acrobats/magicians, etc - not
just scantily-dressed women" so it didn't generate the same sort
of attention.

We've reached out to Samsung for a comment but haven't heard
back.

Basically, it looks like Samsung just has weird launch events.
Sometimes they tip towards being degrading to women. This isn't
unusual in technology, however. There are "booth babes" at just
about every major tech conference. Sexism and tech tend to go
together, unfortunately.

Here's a photo from last year's event, which didn't create the
same uproar, despite clearly being an unusual event: